Chaldeans in Sports

Noah Manna joined the new Walled Lake Central High School boys volleyball team when he was a sophomore with very little experience in the sport. “I’d only played volleyball in gym class,” he said. “The girls in my gym class when I was a freshman who had played volleyball before were amazingly good at it, and the sport looked like fun, so I gave it a try. I’m so glad I did.”

Giulio Zora has two great loves: kayaking and his family. Luckily, those passions go hand in hand for the 12-year-old from Washington Township, the youngest of five siblings — including his twin sister, Gia.

Two sisters winning girls tennis state championships while playing for different high school teams is a remarkable achievement. The coincidences surrounding Alana and Lexa Hindo’s state titles make their story even more extraordinary.

Logan Hamama has a message for young Chaldean basketball players dreaming of starting for their high school team—or even playing in college. “I’m very proud to be a Chaldean who started for one of the top five high school boys basketball programs in the state and will be playing college basketball,” he said.

Anthony Najjar and Chase Roumayah are two of just five wrestlers in Bloomfield Hills High School history to win at least 100 matches in their careers. The outgoing, tight-knit 17-year-old cousins each reached that milestone this past winter during their senior seasons—an impressive feat made even more remarkable by their identical career records: 109 wins and 46 losses.

Giovanni El-Hadi is a 6-foot-5, 310-pound senior offensive lineman for the University of Michigan football team. That’s a typical size for a Division I offensive lineman. But there’s nothing typical about this 21-year-old from Sterling Heights.

The Michigan Girls High School Hockey League season is well underway. Wait—girls play high school hockey? Indeed, they do. Lots of them. Twenty-five teams, mostly from the metropolitan Detroit area, many of them combined squads of several high schools, about 300 girls, are playing in three divisions this season.

he Shaya brothers continued their unprecedented run at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 boys tennis state tournament this season. Pierce Shaya, a senior at Bloomfield Hills High School, won his fourth flight state championship. His high school tennis career is over, but he’ll be playing for the University of Michigan men’s tennis team next season.

From competitive dancer to one of the best girls high school hockey players in the state —that is Sydney Schafer’s remarkable backstory as she begins her junior season on the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s/St. Catherine Academy girls hockey team.

Playing and coaching basketball has long been a family affair for Joe Sermo. And now the story is about to include a new generation. Sermo is heading into his ninth season as the boys basketball coach at Berkley High School. When the Berkley season tips off this winter, Joe’s twin sons Drew and Sam, both sophomores, will most likely be on their father’s team, which finished 15-7 a year ago.

Neither Mario Marougi nor Roman Kalasho had done any competitive rowing before they joined the storied Orchard Lake St. Mary’s High School rowing team as they entered their freshman year at the school. Their only experience in the sport was the annual Learn to Row camp put on by St. Mary’s rowing coach Chris Czarnecki and St. Mary’s rowing team members in the summer before they became freshmen.

Steve Stein has been covering sports for the Chaldean News since its inception in 2004. Explore his picks of the top ten sports stories from the past twenty years.

Ava Sarafa’s storied volleyball career at Birmingham Marian High School is over. Now she’s getting ready for the next stop in her journey. Soon, she’ll be off to the University of Kentucky to play volleyball for the national powerhouse Wildcats. “Time has gone by so quickly since I verbally committed then signed, especially since I signed,” she said, referring to September 4, 2021, when she made a verbal commitment to Kentucky.

Michael Sulaka and Western Michigan University appear to be made for each other. Sulaka, a 6-foot-9-inch, 215-pound senior forward on the defending Division 1 state champion Warren De La Salle High School boys basketball team (who is considered the top “big man” in the state and a serious candidate for the state’s Mr. Basketball Award), has signed to play for Western Michigan.